News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

Sweeney Todd Character Card #2: Mrs. Lovett

By: Dec. 14, 2007
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Name: Mrs. Lovett (a.k.a. Nellie)
Romantic Interests: Sweeney Todd
Special Skills: Baking meat pies, playing the piano
Secret Recipe: Three times through the meat grinder
Known Living Relatives: None
Nemesis: Mrs. Mooney, The Beggar Woman
Famous Quote: "Ooh! A Customer"
Alter Ego:
Helena Bonham Carter

Character Bio:
Mrs. Lovett is the powdery and polite meat-pie maker who resides on Fleet Street.  Though her business has been less than successful, due to the meat shortage, her luck quickly turns when Sweeney Todd (aka Benjamin Barker) returns to London.  With her shop-keeping skills, clever ideas, and serpentine charm, Lovett concocts a stomach-turning scheme to bring business back to her restaurant.  Over the course of her wicked deeds, Mrs. Lovett begins to fall in love with her razor-wielding companion… which may bring catastrophic results.

Click below for multimedia featuring Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett
Clip 1: "How Long 'Til Pirelli Gets Back?"   Clip 2: "A Little Priest"


Extended Character Info:

Major Stage Productions:
1979: Original Broadway Production- Angela Lansbury
1980: London Production- Sheila Hancock
1980: 1st National Tour- Angela Lansbury
1982: 2nd National Tour- June Havoc
1984: Houston Grand Opera Production- Joyce Castle
1984: New York City Opera Production- Rosalind Elias
1985: London Revival- Gillian Hanna
1989: Off-Off-Broadway Revival- Beth Fowler
1989: Broadway Transfer- Beth Fowler
1992: Paper Mill Production- Judy Kaye
1993: Royal Nat'l Theatre Production- Julia McKenzie
1996: Goodspeed Production- Barbara Marineau
1996: London Revival- Jeanette Ranger
1999: Reprise! Concert- Christine Baranski
2000: London Concert- Judy Kaye
2000: New York Concert- Patti LuPone
2002: Sondheim Festival Production- Christine Baranski
2004: New York City Opera Production- Myrna Paris
2004: London Revival- Karen Mann
2005: Broadway Production- Patti LuPone
2006: National Tour- Judy Kaye

Songs:
The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd
The Worst Pies In London
Poor Thing
My Friends
Pirelli's Miracle Elixir/The Contest
Wait
A Little Priest
God, That's Good!
By The Sea
Not While I'm Around
Parlor Songs
City On Fire
Searching
Final Sequence


About Helena Bonham Carter:
British actress Helena Bonham Carter has lent her talents to a wide array of diverse feature films such as Fight Club, Planet of the Apes and Novocaine. Her most recent blockbuster film was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which she played Bellatrix Lestrange.

In 2005, Bonham Carter provided the voice for Lady Tottington in Nick Parter's Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rebit and the voice of the title role in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.

Other feature film credits include Conversations with Other Women, Big Fish, Till Human Voices Wake Us, Live from Baghdad Z(for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award.

Other recent films include Sixty Six, The Heart of Me, Wings of a Dove (Best Actress nomination for an Academy Award, along with Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

She also appeared in Margaret's Museum, Merlin, Lady Jane, Where Angels Fear to Tread, Hamlet, A Room with a View, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Mighty Aprhodite and more.





Videos